The field of optical microscopy is broad, encompassing many types of optical and other devices which rely upon magnification to image or examine or extract information regarding specimens that are smaller than are normally visible with the un-aided human eye. In particular we are concerned with computer-assisted microscopes, wherein a computer is attached to the microscope to provide a display of the image data being produced by the microscope and a user interface to control the various capabilities of the microscope. In addition to optical microscopes, such devices as electron microscopes or confocal microscopes also have computers for image acquisition, display, management and user interface functions. In more particular we are concerned with optical microscopes used in laser processing systems, where the microscope is used to align and plan the laser beam path with respect to the specimen and optionally inspect the results of laser processing. Exemplary laser processing systems that use optical microscopes in this fashion include laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (LA ICP-MS), laser ablation inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES/ICP-AES) and matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight (MALDI-TOF) spectroscopy.
A problem that computer assisted microscopy systems have in common is that the user needs to select the point on the specimen at which the laser impinges. This is to control the composition and quality of the sample of the specimen created by the laser. Often the specimen is sealed in a sample chamber with limited access. This means that the field of view must often be moved around relative to the specimen under examination using remote controls. Added to this is the 3-dimensional nature of some specimens and the limited depth of field of typical microscope systems at high magnifications which combine to require that the field of view be moved in three dimensions including possibly three degrees of rotation in order to image a specimen as desired. A problem is that the controls to change the field of view in this fashion may be divided between two or more motion elements and coordinating these motions to provide a desired transition of the relationship between field of view and specimen can be a difficult task. In any case, altering the relation between the laser beam and the specimen is a common task in these types of systems. Any improvement in user interface that decreased setup time and made positioning specimens easier and faster would be of positive benefit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,859,700 HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGING MICROSCOPE (HIRIM) AND USES THEREOF, inventor Mary M. Yang, Jan. 12, 1999, describes a type of digital imaging microscope, specifically a digital imaging spectrophotometer and the computer interfaced to this microscope in detail. Described in particular is the ability of the computer to acquire large volumes of spectroscopic data and make it available for display. U.S. Pat. No. 6,991,374, COMPUTER CONTROLLED MICROSCOPE, inventors Nicholas James Salmon and Ernst Hans Karl Stelzer, Jun. 31, 2006, describes a computer controlled optical microscope that can remember the parameter settings from on set of image data and apply it to related image data sets as they are recorded by the system. U.S. Pat. No. 7,647,085, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INVESTIGATING TISSUE HISTOLOGY, inventors Michael Roger Cane, Michael Andrew Beadman and Symon D'Oyly Cotton, Jun. 12, 2010, describes a computer-assisted optical microscope with a touch screen interface, but the touch screen is only used to commence operational or programming steps.
Touch screen technology is well-known and widely commercially available. It involves adding equipment to a display to allow the user to input commands to the system by touching a display screen. Touch screen displays typically work either by detecting changes in capacitance caused by the user's touch or by detecting changes in infrared transmission across the screen. In response to a user's touch, the screen transmits the coordinates of the point on the screen touched to a controller. The controller typically interprets the coordinates of the screen touch as being from a pointing device such as a mouse or trackball and takes appropriate actions depending upon how it has been programmed.
What is needed then is a touch screen user interface for computer-assisted microscopy systems that is operatively connected to motion stages to permit the user to input commands to the motion stages to alter the field of view of the system and improve system setup, increase throughput and overcome the problems associated with achieving desired changes in the relationship between the specimen and the laser beam.